


Bad Aim is a Good Thing

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Becky Rosenburg Is Obsessed with Sam Winchester, Homophobic John Winchester, John Winchester's A+ Parenting, M/M, Minor Cassie Robinson/Dean Winchester, Past Jessica Moore/Sam Winchester, Past Kate Milligan/John Winchester - Freeform, Past Ruby/Sam Winchester, Past Tyson Brady/Sam Winchester, Referenced Drugging as Control, Royalty AU, Sam Has Terrible Luck, Wizard!Castiel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-08
Updated: 2018-08-08
Packaged: 2019-06-23 19:14:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15613092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: Castiel was hired to curse Prince Dean Winchester, the oldest son of King John Winchester, as revenge for John not acknowledging his illegitimate son Adam.  Castiel assumed it had worked - he'd done the spell right, his monitor was glowing, and there didn't seem to be any hint of anyone falling in love with Dean.Until someone did.  Castiel is compelled to investigate and find out what went wrong.





	Bad Aim is a Good Thing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LadyShadowphyre](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyShadowphyre/gifts).



> Tumblr Prompt: “Can we be alone for a bit?” + Sastiel
> 
> Loosely inspired by this prompt: "A princess accidentally wrongs a witch and is cursed so that no man shall ever love her. Fortunately, the princess is a lesbian, and is overjoyed. When the witch finds out her spell backfired she is furious, and goes to confront the princess. Except now that she’s a little calmer, the princess is super cute? Sparks fly, and not because of a magic spell."
> 
> Thanks to LadyShadowphyre for the wonderful mutual enabling and the chance to kick ideas around!

The curse was a classic. It was practically tradition. A man shows that he doesn’t understand love, so his child is cursed to never know love. A bit spiteful, perhaps, but Castiel was sympathetic to Kate’s plight – a single mother because John Winchester abandoned her and gave all his love to his dead wife’s sons. Now the older son was showing signs of being the same kind of man – spend the night with a woman, and then ride off into the sunset with no thought of the consequences. Cursing the older son to never know a woman’s love would be doing those women a favor, as Kate saw it. Kate was proof that you didn’t have to make a woman love you in order to get her pregnant, and princes rarely married for love anyway. There wouldn’t be a problem with succession.

It had sounded good, so Castiel had agreed to the plan. For years, he didn’t think much of it. Dean had affair after affair that were short and sweet, with both sides happy to part at the end. Then it was announced that Prince Dean intended to marry a commoner. Cassie Robinson was beautiful, intelligent, and would make a good queen, but didn’t carry the usual recommending factors of a noble birth or a large family fortune. The rumor was that she loved Dean and Dean loved her.

If she loved Dean – and from what Castiel could see, she did – then something had gone wrong with his curse. Castiel had to investigate. The logical assumption was that it had been discovered and broken, so Castiel’s first step was to check the curse monitor he’d set up. It was buried – it had been years, after all – but it still glowed a bright red. The curse was intact.

The next step, then, was to investigate the prince. That meant contriving an excuse to get close to the prince. After a day of thought, he had a plan. It was easy enough to get an audience with the king with the simple claim that he believed his son was under a curse. John didn’t even wait for the next audience session – a messenger came to fetch Castiel that same afternoon.

 

John wasted no time. “You believe my son is cursed?”

“Yes, your majesty.” Castiel bowed. “I would prefer not to name my source, but he is someone I trust unquestioningly, and his information is usually good.”

“Dean?”

Dean smirked and took Cassie’s hand. “I don’t feel cursed. If it exists, the curse is pretty lame – my life’s great. About as close to perfect as it gets, really.”

“You’ve got a point, but still, what could it hurt to get checked out?” The younger prince looked up from a ledger he was studying off to one side. “There are curses that don’t activate until something happens. You turn thirty, you get married, your firstborn child arrives… if the curse is infertility, that would be a good thing for the past but bad for the future. Given my complete inability to even get a woman to look at me, the kingdom would kinda be screwed.”

Castiel’s stomach flipped. Was it possible…? Dean just scoffed. “Sammy, women look at you. You just never see them because your eyes are glued to the book in front of you, or you’re seeing some far-off thing no one else can share in, or because you’re hiding from Becky.”

“Becky?” Castiel said.

“Princess Rebecca of Besatthet,” Sam explained. “Her dad told her all kinds of stories about me and she is determined to marry me, to the point where she tried to kidnap me last year. I think we’ve made it clear to everyone but her that I am never going to marry her, no matter what the ties between our kingdoms are.”

“So… she’s in love with you?” Castiel hoped so, and felt very guilty about hoping for it. If this Becky loved Sam, then Castiel’s curse hadn’t missed and doomed Sam instead of Dean. On the other hand, no one deserved to deal with someone who tried to kidnap them.

“I guess that would depend on your definition of love,” Sam said slowly. “She’s certainly got the obsession and the passion, but she’s shown absolutely no interest in what I want, what I need, or what’s in my best interests, and isn’t that a huge part of what makes love so special? That someone else’s happiness becomes just as important to you as your own?”

Castiel nodded. His curse didn’t prevent lust or friendship or family’s love, so obsessive love probably wasn’t covered either. “True enough, I suppose.” He reached into his pocket, touching his monitor. Dean was loved. Sam seemed to be unloved. He or Kate must have made a mistake all those years ago. He was no longer interested in maintaining this curse. It would be very simple to invent a cover story, break a fake curse that broke the real curse while he was at it, and leave.

“Not like I mind all that much,” Sam said. “That women don’t look at me, not Becky, I mind Becky. Or that I don’t notice or whatever. Really not interested in women at all.”

“Sam, shut up,” John snapped.

Dean raised an eyebrow. “You were interested enough in Ruby…”

“ _Ruby_ was drugging me, if you remember,” Sam said. “Dad, Dean, I think I have an idea what happened, but I’d like to talk to Castiel about it before I say anything here. Can we be alone for a bit?”

“No,” John snarled. “No, you are not taking the handsome wizard…”

“Dad, no, that’s not what this is about,” Sam said, although he flushed a bit. “We’ll be back. Come on, Castiel.” Sam walked out of the room.

Castiel looked to John. One didn’t simply leave a king’s presence over his objections. John waved him off, and Castiel hurried after Sam. “You have a theory, your highness?”

“Yeah. Someone meant to curse Dean so no one would ever love him, it missed and hit me. About ten years ago?”

Sam had guessed. That was impressive. Sam's intelligence was one of the kingdom's great prides. Looking back, he could see the clues Sam might have put together, except for one. “Why ten years ago?”

Sam flashed a brief smile. “I have terrible luck with princesses. Ruby… in her own weird way, she did love me, I guess, and I cared about her, but I don’t know how much of that was real and how much was the magic drugs she was slipping me. Then she suddenly lost interest in pretending to love me, rebelled against her mother and father when they tried to force her to keep up the relationship, and I never understood why that happened. If the curse hit then, and she was never faking her love for me…”

“Why would the curse accept Ruby’s love for you as genuine, if Becky’s isn’t?”

Sam shrugged. “I don’t know. Drugging me was bad, but she was willing to work with me in a way that no one else, not even Dean, ever has. Guess that was good enough for the curse.”

“Hmm. You’re right. You’re exactly right.” Nothing else would make sense. He had to be right.

Sam raised an eyebrow. “And you know this because…”

Castiel hesitated, but Sam didn't seem upset by the curse. Maybe he'd understand, if Castiel explained? It was worth the risk. Besides, Sam deserved to know. “Because I’m the one who cast the curse, which makes it simple for me to break it.”

"Huh." Sam processed that quickly. “This curse seems pretty specific… what were the exact specifications?”

“As long as Dean… you, I suppose… was cursed, he would never know a woman’s true love.”

Sam snorted. “Wow. What a hardship. Dean’s fine? No curses?”

No curses that Castiel knew of. “Since I’m here I’d like to check just to be sure, but he should be.”

Sam's face lit up in a brilliant smile. “Great. Thank you for the best gift you’ve ever given me. Ignore Dad’s scowling, no need to tell him about the curse, I’m happy. Except for Becky, but that’s not your fault.”

“You… what?” Castiel had missed a step along the way somewhere. Or several.

Sam's eyes dropped to a seemingly very fascinating cracked tile in the floor. “I'm not interested in girls. At all. When Dad finally outstubborns me and makes me marry, I’ll do my best to provide for the kingdom, but I hate the thought. Don’t spread this around, but I’m really only interested in men. Dad hates that, you might have noticed.”

“Is that what his refusal to let us talk alone was about.” So the king was one of those. Castiel decided not to bring up his own similar "failing".

“Yeah." Sam's face reddened just a little. "I really don’t mind keeping this curse, so I wanted to talk to you alone. That’s it. Pure and honorable intentions, I swear.”

“Oh.” That should be a relief. Wizards were supposed to be above such base things as sex, and that had never been a problem for Castiel before, but he’d never met a man who would admit to being attracted to him before, either. It was something of a disappointment to learn that he still hadn’t. “Shall we return, then?”

“Yeah. Let’s go.” Sam looked at him oddly, but led the way back in.

 

John’s eyebrows shot up when Castiel followed Sam back into the room, but other than that, he hid any reaction. “Well?”

“With your permission, I’d like to check both of the princes for curses,” Castiel said. “Just to be sure.” Sam shot Castiel an annoyed glare, but Castiel ignored it, stepping to Dean and placing two fingers on Dean’s temple. It was trivial magic to make Dean’s head glow a sickly green, and Castiel nodded. “I’ve found the curse on Dean. When he was thirty, he would begin to age rapidly and likely die shortly after. It won’t happen, I’ve dispelled the curse.”

“Thanks for that,” Dean said, as Cassie hugged him tightly. “What about Sam?”

Castiel stepped over to Sam, whose eyes begged him not to do this. He raised his hand. As before, it was trivial to alter the results and hide the curse he’d placed on Sam. “Sam is clean. No curses, no harmful intent from anything, he’s exactly who he is meant to be.” The gratitude in Sam’s eyes made the deception well worth it. “Thank you for allowing me this opportunity, your majesty, your highnesses. I will be sure to let my source know that his information has saved the prince.”

 

Two days later, Castiel had managed to mostly put the encounter out of his mind. He’d seen no need to track down Kate and tell her of the mistake; no good could come of it. Then there was a knock at the door. “In the name of the prince, open up!”

Sam? Castiel carefully set aside the root he was chopping and headed for the door. “Is there a problem, your highness?”

It wasn’t Sam. It was Dean. “Yeah, there’s a problem. My little brother’s moping and withdrawn and I can’t snap him out of it. I made him tell me the truth about the other day, what you two were talking about out in the hall, so what did you do to him?”

“I did noth…” That wasn’t entirely true, was it. “Nothing I did to him would have him moping. Nothing I did to him two days ago should have resulted in you noticing a change in him at all. If the curse is weighing on him now that he knows about it, I can break it from here; the only reason I sought the audience was to figure out what had gone wrong.”

“Uh-huh. That’s what I thought.” Dean stepped to the door and walked out to the carriage, dragging Sam out of it and into Castiel’s home. “Talk to him. At least you’ll know. You can stop driving yourself crazy with what-ifs.” Dean turned and walked out, leaving Sam with a baffled Castiel.

Sam glared at the door, and then turned to Castiel without meeting his eyes. “Sorry about him. He’s been an idiot the last couple days. I’m fine, I’ve told him that I’m fine, he just refuses to believe me.”

“What is it you’re supposed to talk to me about? If you’ve changed your mind and want the curse gone…” Castiel was already walking toward his supplies.

“No. No, leave the curse, please. It’s not… it’s not the curse. It’s not even…” Sam shoved his hands through his hair, causing an odd jealousy to cause Castiel’s fingers to flex. “Look, this is stupid, but Dean’s probably right that I should just tell you so I’m not wondering about what-if the rest of my life. Dad’s fear about letting me go off with you wasn’t… entirely unreasonable or unfounded, knowing what he does about me, although you’d think you being a wizard would make him…”

“I’m a wizard, not a priest. For us, it’s an expectation, not a requirement. There are no vows. Wizards have married and had children, you know.”

“Yeah, so have priests,” Sam muttered. Louder, he added, “But the point is that he should have assumed you would say no to any advances based on your dedication to your magic.”

“A prince can often bypass such things, you know.”

Sam rolled his eyes. “Yeah, just ask Dean. I don’t throw my title around like that. I don’t like sleeping with people who are only there because I’m a prince, whether that’s me threatening them or them seeking me out so they can say they slept with royalty.”

“But you… are interested in me?” Castiel had to assume that’s where all this was leading. It didn’t make sense otherwise.

“Yeah. Yeah, I am. You kinda made an impression… the insistence on scanning me, that was to tell my dad that my interest in men and lack of interest in women is natural, not a curse?”

“It was. Dean knows about this and approves?”

“Well, approves might be a bit strong, but he smuggled me out here against Dad’s orders. There’s actually another reason he came out here, did he tell you?”

“No… what’s the other reason?”

“Dad fired our court magician for failing to notice that one of his sons had been cursed. Which I’d feel worse about if it weren’t for the fact that he did miss the curse on me. He wants you to come to court as his replacement.”

“Even though that puts me in proximity with you?”

“Apparently. Will you come?”

“Will he allow me to pursue something with you? I would like to do that, but not if it gives him a reason to kill me for insolence.”

“You… you would?” Sam’s mouth fell open, and it took him a couple tries to find his voice. “He won’t be happy about it, but Dean will be on our side, and Dad’s not… completely unreasonable. It would probably be best to admit up-front that that’s what we’re doing, instead of trying to sneak around. Dad will… he’ll get over it when Dean and Cassie start having kids at the latest. If things last that long, if you don’t lose interest.”

“Well, we’ll have to see. Give me some time to wrap up what I was working on when Dean interrupted, and I’ll go with you to talk to the king about the position, and you.”

 

John was not at all pleased to see Sam walk in beside Dean and Castiel. He was even less pleased with Castiel’s condition for the job. “Whether I take the job or not, I intend to pursue a relationship with Prince Sam. If that will be a problem for you, then I will not take the job.”

John hit his feet, fists clenched. “You dare?”

“I dare,” Sam said before Castiel could open his mouth. “This time, I’m standing up. I let you scare away Brady and I’ve never quite been able to silence the doubts about Jess’s sudden disappearance, but not this time. You’re not taking Castiel from me.”

“In Dad’s defense, Brady deserved to be run off,” Dean muttered to Castiel. “He didn’t have anything to do with Jess, the previous court magician tracked him to a bandit camp where he was killed, but I can’t blame Sam for being suspicious.”

“You’re my son, and you will do as I say,” John spat at Sam.

“No, sir, I will not.” Sam crossed his arms. “Not this time. I’m sorry. I can’t.” He glanced over at Castiel. “Or I won’t. Take your pick. Castiel checked me for curses, there is no curse on me making me the way I am, so whatever your problem is, suck it up and deal.”

“He’s right, Dad,” Dean interrupted. “If it weren’t Cas, it’d be some other guy. I’m with Sam on this one. Suck it up and deal. You’ve had your share of scandals, Sam’s won’t even be that big a deal.”

“Yeah. Whatever happened to Adam, anyway?” Sam asked, and Castiel’s eyes widened. He hadn’t been aware that Sam or Dean knew about Adam. “At least with me and Castiel, there’s no potential at all for an illegitimate child.”

“Adam’s mother realized I wasn’t going to budge on my position of not recognizing bastards, realized she wasn’t getting any money or power out of me, and took off to live somewhere else. Last time I had Zachariah check in on him, he’d apprenticed with a physician out west.” John looked between his sons. “Adam disappeared. Most people have forgotten. Castiel won’t be like that. There’s no hiding him.”

“There’s not gonna be any trying to. I’m not ashamed, and anyone who tries to make me feel like I should be can get over it.” Sam took a step closer to his father. “You can’t stop me.”

“Fine. Castiel, whatever, you and Sam apparently will do whatever the hell you want, just don’t make me regret it,” John snapped. “Now get out of here and make whatever arrangements you need to move into the palace.”


End file.
